Returns an unsignedlong representing the Unicode reference number of the key; this attribute is used only by the keypress event. For keys whose char attribute contains multiple characters, this is the Unicode value of the first character in that attribute. In Firefox 26 this returns codes for printable characters.

Warning: This attribute is deprecated; you should use key instead, if available.

Returns an unsigned long representing a system and implementation dependent numeric code identifying the unmodified value of the pressed key; this is usually the same as keyCode.

Warning: This attribute is deprecated; you should use key instead, if available.

Notes

There are keydown, keypress, and keyup events. For most keys, Gecko dispatches a sequence of key events like this:

When the key is first depressed, the keydown event is sent.

If the key is not a modifier key, the keypress event is sent.

When the user releases the key, the keyup event is sent.

Special cases

Certain keys toggle the state of an LED indicator, such as Caps Lock, Num Lock, and Scroll Lock. On Windows and Linux, these keys dispatch only the keydown and keyup events. Note that on Linux, Firefox 12 and earlier also dispatched the keypress event for these keys.

On Mac, however, Caps Lock dispatches only the keydown event due to a platform event model limitation. Num Lock had been supported on old MacBook (2007 model and older) but Mac hasn't supported Num Lock feature even on external keyboards in these days. On the old MacBook which has Num Lock key, Num Lock doesn't cause any key events. And Gecko supports Scroll Lock key if an external keyboard which has F14 is connected. However, it generates keypress event. This inconsistent behavior is a bug; see error 602812.

Auto-repeat handling

When a key is pressed and held down, it begins to auto-repeat. This results in a sequence of events similar to the following being dispatched:

keydown

keypress

keydown

keypress

<<repeating until the user releases the key>>

keyup

This is what the DOM Level 3 specification says should happen. There are some caveats, however, as described below.

Auto-repeat on some GTK environments such as Ubuntu 9.4

In some GTK-based environments, auto-repeat dispatches a native key-up event automatically during auto-repeat, and there's no way for Gecko to know the difference between a repeated series of keypresses and an auto-repeat. On those platforms, then, an auto-repeat key will generate the following sequence of events:

keydown

keypress

keyup

keydown

keypress

keyup

<<repeating until the user releases the key>>

keyup

In these environments, unfortunately, there's no way for web content to tell the difference between auto-repeating keys and keys that are just being pressed repeatedly.

Auto-repeat handling prior to Gecko 4.0

Before Gecko 4.0 , keyboard handling was less consistent across platforms.

Windows

Auto-repeat behavior is the same as in Gecko 4.0 and later.

Mac

After the initial keydown event, only keypress events are sent until the keyup event occurs; the inter-spaced keydown events are not sent.

Linux

The event behavior depends on the specific platform. It will either behave like Windows or Mac depending on what the native event model does.

Specifications

The KeyboardEvent interface specification went through numerous draft versions, first under DOM Events Level 2 where it was dropped as no consensus arose, then under DOM Events Level 3. This led to the implementation of non-standard initialization methods, the early DOM Events Level 2 version, KeyboardEvent.initKeyEvent() by Gecko browsers and the early DOM Events Level 3 version, KeyboardEvent.initKeyboardEvent() by others. Both have been superseded by the modern usage of a constructor: KeyboardEvent().

*1 The arguments of initKeyboardEvent() of WebKit and Blink's are different from the definition in DOM Level 3 Events. The method is: initKeyboardEvent(in DOMString typeArg, in boolean canBubbleArg, in boolean cancelableArg, in views::AbstractView viewArg, in DOMString keyIndentifierArg, in unsigned long locationArg, in boolean ctrlKeyArg, in boolean altKeyArg, in boolean shiftKeyArg, in boolean metaKeyArg, in boolean altGraphKeyArg)

*3 The argument of initKeyboardEvent() of IE is different from the definition in DOM Level 3 Events. The method is: initKeyboardEvent(in DOMString typeArg, in boolean canBubbleArg, in boolean cancelableArg, in views::AbstractView viewArg, in DOMString keyArg, in unsigned long locationArg, in DOMString modifierListArg, in boolean repeatArt, in DOMString locationArg). See document of initKeyboardEvent() in MSDN.